Pearland ISD OKs raises for teachers, staff

By Tyler Johnson, STAFF WRITER

Updated
12:42 pm CDT, Friday, June 28, 2019

Teachers and staff members in Pearland ISD will receive a pay raise and additional health benefits for the 2019-2020 school year. Teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses with six or more years of experience will receive a 3.25 percent pay increase. Those with five years or less of experience will see 3 percent increase to their pay. Instructional support, administrative educational, administrative business, administrative support and other employees will receive a 2.5 percent increase.

Teachers and staff members in Pearland ISD will receive a pay raise and additional health benefits for the 2019-2020 school year. Teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses with six or more years of experience

Teachers and staff members in Pearland ISD will receive a pay raise and additional health benefits for the 2019-2020 school year. Teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses with six or more years of experience will receive a 3.25 percent pay increase. Those with five years or less of experience will see 3 percent increase to their pay. Instructional support, administrative educational, administrative business, administrative support and other employees will receive a 2.5 percent increase.

Teachers and staff members in Pearland ISD will receive a pay raise and additional health benefits for the 2019-2020 school year. Teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses with six or more years of experience

Teachers and staff members in Pearland ISD will receive a pay raise and additional health benefits for the 2019-2020 school year through money the district will receive from the recently approved state school finance bill.

Teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses with six or more years of experience will receive a 3.25 percent pay increase. Those with five years or less of experience will see 3 percent increase to their pay.

The salary for teachers and librarians beginning their careers in the district will jump from $54,500 to $56,000, according to district spokeswoman Kim Hocott.

Staff members enrolled in the Teacher Retirement Systems health insurance plans will also receive a district contribution increase of $300 every year.

"We have to think of teachers as professionals. These folks are highly trained and some have two or three degrees," school board president Charles Gooden said. "They play an important role in our society and they deserve to be compensated as well as we can. The board and the administration has been clear on wanting to recruit and retain. In order to do that, compensation has to be a part of that package."

The board approved the salary increases at the June school board meeting, Hocott said.

On June 11, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the finance bill, called HB 3, which will generate about $6.5 billion in new spending for state schools.

Pearland ISD will receive $4 million through a combination of state and local funds, according to Superintendent John Kelly.

The law requires the district to spend $1.2 million of that on salaries and benefits. However, Pearland ISD is spending $3.5 million.

"Spending only $1.2 million on salaries and benefits would result in a 1 percent salary increase overall, and that was not considered adequate by our board," Hocott said.

Kelly said the previous salary for educators in Pearland ISD did not reflect the work they put in.

"There is nothing more important to the district's success than the people we hire and retain," he said. "In order to do this, we must remain as competitive as possible — which is a great challenge given the comparatively low amount of funding we've received from the state."

Kelly said HB 3 helps both districts with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students and those with wealthy tax bases retain more of their local revenue.

However, Pearland ISD doesn't fit into either category, according to Kelly.

"The new bill fails to retain a recognition of the higher costs of education in our area," he said. "And by using current tax base values rather than past-year values in the new state formulas, our district can't reap the full benefit of new business and residential growth in our tax base."